This is an opinion editorial by BitcoinActuary, an actuary based in the U.K.

I’ve recently returned from spending a long weekend with around 200,000 others at one of the loves of my life, Glastonbury Festival. The 2023 version of this annual music festival was peppered with sets from big name acts — Elton John, Guns N’ Roses and Foo Fighters, to name a few — but the inevitable media focus on these tends to mislead those viewing it from the outside. Glastonbury is a phenomenon of vast scale; it could be described as 10 festivals wrapped into one. Nearly everyone who goes will tell you they’ve had a great time, but probably all for different reasons.

So, what links Glastonbury with Bitcoin? Some cursory research and my own trips to the festival in recent years suggest that very few have ever made a link at all, barring this typically-scathing Guardian effort from a couple of years back.

Indeed, many probably see the two as polar opposites. Glastonbury is famously left wing — there remains the Left Field tent, which houses talks and debates by activists and union members, led by the ever-present, “broadly leftist” Billy Bragg. The pyramid stage field featured grass coloring this year to display the giant message: “We Stand With The NHS” in support of the U.K.’s National Health Service.

Bitcoin, by contrast, is often characterized as a technology that appeals to the right wing. David Golumbia went about as far as it’s possible to go in his 2016 book “The Politics Of Bitcoin: Software As Right-Wing Extremism.”

Secondly, the festival is environmentally conscious and has long supported Greenpeace. By contrast, Bitcoin is constantly criticized for its supposedly-wasteful energy use. Greenpeace’s U.S. arm has been responsible for its infamously poor “change the code, not the climate” campaign against Bitcoin, funded to the tune of $5 million by Ripple’s Chris Larson.

But are Glastonbury and Bitcoin really irreconcilable? Not at all.

Firstly, on the political front, Bitcoin itself is actually apolitical. It is a set of rules without rulers. Anyone who attempts to argue otherwise tends to mischaracterize it, and often relies on typecasting the average Bitcoiner as right wing. In response, I’d encourage readers to take a longer-term look at monetary history, and to ask the likes of Golumbia what it is about this open-source, universally-accessible, optional, non-coercive protocol that is so detestable. The smartest shortcut response to this hypothetical comes from Natalie Smolenski: “Being an enemy of a technology is a fairly dumb way to waste your time because you’re not in charge of whether a technology is adopted at any meaningful scale.”

Moreover, those from the “progressive” end of the political spectrum are beginning to make their voices heard and show that Bitcoin has universal appeal. Reminder: Bitcoin is for enemies.

Onto Bitcoin’s environmental impact. As argued here and here, all is not what it initially seems when evaluating Bitcoin’s ongoing energy use. In reality, Bitcoin is operating with ever-increasing efficiency and it drives behavioral change by lowering an individuals time preference, which can be a vital step in reducing the rampant and wasteful consumerism that we see in the world today.

In summary, on both the political and environmental fronts, Bitcoin and Glastonbury are not the polar opposites that many would assume. There are commonalities, too. Both suit a libertarian outlook. Each has one-word brand recognition. Both would appear to sell themselves — Bitcoin, of course, has seen explosive growth with no formal marketing department, while Glastonbury tickets over the previous decade have generally sold out in less than an hour and around eight months before the event is actually held. Bitcoin has memes, Glastonbury has memes on flags.

So, how might Glastonbury embrace Bitcoin?

This past year, it was striking just how many payments were being made by card versus only a few years earlier, when cash reigned supreme. With many small merchants at the festival, it could hugely reduce fees of anywhere between 1.5% and 3.5% currently levied on every purchase, by embracing Bitcoin’s Lightning Network as an added payment option. In the U.K., I’d suggest checking out the excellent work done by CoinCorner and Bridge2Bitcoin in driving forward the Lightning Network as a low-cost payment mechanism for merchants.

In addition, bitcoin could represent a natural, long-term treasury reserve asset for Glastonbury — a long-term holding in bitcoin could help ride out any rough times in future. Indeed, the festival is no stranger to the pernicious nature of inflation: Ticket prices were £105 in 2003 and had increased to £335 in 2023, which no doubt reflects the many increases in costs faced.

Glastonbury have long been ahead of the curve in making sweeping changes ahead of others. In 2007, it eliminated ticket touts and scalpers in one fell swoop by including festival goers’ photos on tickets. In 2019, it banned single-use plastic bottles entirely from the site, and in 2023, around 22,000 tickets were sold specifically for festival goers traveling by bus. Might it also get ahead of the curve in embracing Bitcoin?

Admittedly, probably not, based on any current evidence. But I would say to Michael and Emily Eavis, the organizers of the event: Dig a little deeper than the current, skewed output on display from mainstream publications in the U.K. There is much more to Bitcoin than first meets the eye.

Michael Eavis confirmed in this year’s festival program that the local council has now issued a license for them to hold the festival in perpetuity. This must feel particularly sweet, given his struggles with them over the years. For Glastonbury, it seems, there will always be another year. And so too for Bitcoin.

This is a guest post by BitcoinActuary. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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MicroBT, a leading manufacturer of Bitcoin mining rigs, is focused on addressing the need for upgraded power sources in bitcoin mining. In an interview conducted at Bitcoin 2023 in Miami Beach, MicroBT’s COO, Jordan Chen, emphasized the company’s commitment to developing a solar power mining solution. According to Chen, “Solar power is a perfect power source for bitcoin mining, both in terms of decentralization and sustainability.” He further explained that MicroBT is working with partners along the value chain to provide a mature solution that utilizes solar power for mining worldwide.

Chen elaborated on the adjustment of voltage and frequency in MicroBT’s Whatsminer rigs to adapt to the change in solar power. He stated, “The mining machine has to adapt to the power changes so as to keep mining throughout the day with various working voltage and frequency.” Chen highlighted that this dynamic adjustment only costs about “1% to 2% efficiency compared to traditional shut-down-and-reboot method,” ensuring continuous mining operations and optimizing revenue.

Discussing the cooling methods in the new Whatsminer M50 series, Chen provided insights into the benefits and unique features of each method. He explained, “Air-cooling is taking away heat via fans, while hydro-cooling uses water-cooling pads which eliminate the need for fans, heat sinks, and offer a longer lifetime.” Regarding immersion cooling, Chen highlighted its advantages, stating, “It’s really no dust, no exposure to corrosive air, low noise and a longer lifetime.”

Chen shared MicroBT’s focus on heat utilization scenarios, stating, “The heat generated during the mining process will be transferred to an outside heating loop through a heat exchanger.” He further explained that the heat recovery ratio can be as high as 95%. Chen emphasized MicroBT’s collaboration with customers on various applications, such as providing heating services to communities and generating steam for industrial uses like food processing.

When discussing MicroBT’s vision for the future of Bitcoin mining, Chen emphasized their commitment to leveraging renewable energies and maximizing the reuse of heat generated during mining. He stated, “Our vision is allowing bitcoin mining to make a bigger and bigger positive contribution to society,” with a focus on minimizing carbon emissions and carbon footprint.

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The new BITC ETF will use an “optimum roll” strategy to focus on long-term returns for investors.

Bitwise Asset Management, Creators of the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF and Bitwise Web3 ETF, have introduced a new “Bitwise Bitcoin Strategy Optimum Roll ETF” under the ticker BITC.

According to the press release, the fund “was built to offer investors regulated, professionally managed exposure to bitcoin with a unique design that minimizes pricing inefficiencies that can emerge in bitcoin-linked ETFs focused on front-month or near-month futures contracts.” The ETF aims to address this by utilizing what it describes as an “optimum roll strategy that considers all available contracts and intelligently selects the contracts with the lowest level of contango (or the highest level of backwardation) in an effort to maximize long-term returns.”

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan explained why this particular structure was chosen.

“Historically, optimum roll strategies in other asset classes, such as oil and natural gas futures, have outperformed strategies focused on front-month or near-month contracts over time,” he said. “We believe this same strategy can apply to the bitcoin futures market as it continues to deepen and evolve.”

In addition, the fund’s structure as an SEC-regulated ETF will make bitcoin exposure available in a format “overwhelmingly favored by financial professionals,” according to the press release, citing research by Bitwise and VettaFi exploring financial advisor attitudes toward crypto that found ETFs were the preferred method of investing for 68% of advisors.

“If there’s anything this past year has reinforced, it’s that how you invest in crypto is as important as what you invest in,” Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley reiterated. “The Bitwise Bitcoin Strategy Optimum Roll ETF gives institutions, advisors, and their clients a professional, regulated solution for adding exposure to bitcoin returns while bypassing the risks of custodying bitcoin directly or investing through novel platforms.”

The custodian of the BITC ETF is BNY Mellon and the fund’s distributor is Foreside Fund Services, LLC.

It should be noted that holding Bitcoin futures ETFs does introduce third-party risk not present for those who hold spot bitcoin in self-custody wallets.

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